Heroic Albino

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The inverse of the Evil Albino, the Heroic Albino is a good guy who has albinism. Albinism is a condition that affects the production of melanin, causing the body and hair of the subject to be white. Use of this condition to indicate heroism usually takes advantage of the idea that that Light Is Good. White is the color of innocence, purity and holiness, so a character whose whole body is white must be very good indeed, sometimes to the point of Mystical White Hair.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

"Prince" of ˝ Prince is a textbook example, as Prince's quest to be a legendary hero is what drives the story.

Prussia/Gilbert from Axis Powers Hetalia, while not really any different from the other characters when it comes to heroism, probably likes to think of himself as such. He likes to be a pest and has an enormous ego, but he loves baby chicks and panda plushies and once started a blog.

Canaan, from literally, Canaan. She was probably some other hair color before, since Alphard explained that synthetic synesthesia is achieved at a painful process: your hair turns white, and you go through a bad headache.

Shiro from Deadman Wonderland starts out this way, but then it's revealed that due to a Split Personality and a Dark and Troubled Past, she is actually The Wretched Egg, responsible for killing all of Ganta's classmates and landing him in that hellhole to begin with. :And THEN it's revealed that she doesn't even have a split personality; she was evil all along.

While the morality of pretty much any character in Death Note is debatable, Near does work to defeat Light and end his killing spree. (He succeeds, too, which helps.)

Heine Rammsteiner from Dogs: Bullets & Carnage becomes this more and more as the series goes on. Despite his bad attitude and a tendency toward apathy, (and the fact that he's a genetically altered killing machine with a psychotic voice in his head that occasionally takes over and performs horrible acts of violence) he steps in to save a little girl from getting sold into the sex trade and makes sure that she has somewhere safe to live, and from there he slowly becomes increasingly altruistic.

Dorothea Essenbach from the manga Dorothea is a prime example of this trope as she is very obviously an albino with a heroic cause (protecting her friends and family from 'supposed witch'-hunters).

While Alzeid from Hatenkou Yuugi isn't the most heroic of characters, he's definitely not evil. It's also a plot point that he and his brother don't suffer from the health problems mentioned on the Evil Albino page.

Koko Hekmatyar has bright-white hair and skin, but blue eyes. Being a arms dealer with her own private micro-army, she qualifies for the Anti-Hero variant.

Jonah is this with a deep tan. In this case the tan is justified as he was born and raised in the Middle East.

K has Anna, a psychic Elegant Gothic Lolita who is a Clansman of the Red King until she becomes the new Red King in the movie. She has the red eyes. She also happens to be colorblind, and the only color she can see, is... you guessed it.

There are plenty of other heroic white-haired characters, most of whom are pale, but Anna seems to be the only one that really counts for this trope.

Mary, a quarter-Medusa whose Image Song is about her beginnings as a Hikikomori living alone in a forest (referenced below in Music), and how she came to believe she was an Evil Albino, but was proven wrong by Seto. Throughout the rest of the story she is a quiet member of the Mekakushi-Dan, but ends up saving everyone using her Medusa powers when Shintaro and Ayano give her back all of the memories of previous time-loops.

Mary's mother, Shion, was no slouch either. While she did keep her daughter inside (albeit with the intent of showing her the world once she was sure her powers were under control), she uses her own power for the first time (after swearing to her mother not to) when Mary was in danger, resulting in her own death.

Setsuna Sakurazaki of Mahou Sensei Negima! is an unusual case for being a half-Demon, and yet - being member of the Uzoku/crow tribe - somehow has white wings. Vampire Evangeline has alluded to her wearing contact lenses and dying her hair. For demons in particular, it makes for Fantastic Racism.

Natasha from Majuutsukai No Shojo seems to be a villain during her first appearance, but she was actually mind controlled and is soon freed, after which she turns out to be a kind, ditzy and fiercely loyal, to the point of sacrificing herself for the heroine.

Xerxes Break from the manga Pandora Hearts is an albinistic hero with a very intricate past (his past self, Kevin Regnard, sacrificed his life (to an extent) to reverse the deaths of the people he served in a desperation play) and a strange sense of humor. Though his motives are sometimes suspect, he tends towards self-sacrifice in times of need (by using his Chain, the Mad Hatter, for example. Which is slowly killing him with every use as a result of the steps he took as Kevin Regnard).

The eponymous character of Soul Eater, while never outright stated to be albino due to his tanned skin, has the white hair and the red eyes, but is probably more an example of You Gotta Have White Hair.

Tegami Bachi pretty much revels in this. The main character, Lag, as well as Gauche (in the beginning, at least), Dr. Thunderland, and a number of others.

There are a lot of albinos in Amberground, so it follows that a lot of them are going to be good guys.

Soldier Blue of Toward the Terra is one of the gentlest, kindest characters in the series, with a truly admirable inner calm. Despite this, he does not hesitate to place himself personally in the line of fire in literally a moment's notice if those he cares about are threatened. He literally threw himself in front of a blast meant to destroy an entire planet seconds after realizing what was going on.

The White Witch from the Legion of Super-Heroes. (Although her colouration was the result of her magical powers, she had pure white hair, chalk white skin and red eyes, so she certainly came across as an albino.)

La Lunatica, a psychic vampire and member of the future hero team X-Men 2099.

The title character of Supreme along with his sister. Their white hair is the result of exposure to Green Rocks, though one of his villains does refer to Supreme as an albino.

Batwoman at least looks like an example, though it's more of an artistic choice than an actual character trait. Her skin is colored an extremely pale white (bordering on vampiric) that looks particularly striking and unusual on the page, but isn't treated as especially unusual or strange-looking In-Universe.

Fahrenheit Monahan from the Lackluster World series is an alienated albino journalist who tries to shake the rest of the world out of its consumerist slumber via some harmless vandalism.

Olive from Gotham Academy is an interesting case as she has all the traits down except for her chocolate brown skin. She's more of Anti-Hero as well, pulling reckless stunts and crossing Batman, but they're all to protect the people she cares about. Which includes Killer Croc.

You can't really say he is a hero, but Noi from Noi Albinoi, an Icelandic movie, features an albino as the main character, who, while bored, is a good guy overall.

U-Vee from Disturbing Behavior is not exactly a hero but he's still quite a likeable character.

Roger Rabbit has white fur, very pale pads on his feet, and light blue eyes (light blue sclerae and blue irides). Although he also has black pupils, brown eyebrows, and an orange shock of hair on his head, and so not actually albino, it's clear his appearance was inspired by albino rabbits. However, giving him pink eyes was probably ruled out as too creepy, and would've also fit Eddie's description of the "burning red eyes" of his brother's killer, confusing the issue of Roger's guilt or innocence.

In Me, Myself, and Irene Casper is set up as an Evil Albino who murdered his entire family. As his presence on this list indicates, that isn't quite true. When Charlie and Irene ditch Casper with a flimsy excuse, it appears that Casper is going to pursue and kill them. However, at the films climax, Casper ends up saving Charlie by killing the bad guy with a lawn dart. It's later revealed that Casper lied about murdering his family because he was intimidated by Charlie who was a paranoid schizophrenic. Turns out his family just moved to Arizona. "I mean look at me, I wouldn't last two days in the sun".

Kira from The Dark Crystal seems to have this look going on, except for the hazel eyes. Then again, she's a Gelfling living on the planet Thra, so it might be hard to apply earthly biology to these critters.

Beowulf "Bey" Shaeffer, hero of several stories in Larry Niven's Known Space series, from the planet We Made It, which is populated primarily by albinistic people due to a founder effect from the original colonists. Bey has no unusual powers besides being exceptionally brave, quick-witted, and one hell of a pilot. He's also the victim of discrimination on Earth, where he isn't allowed to have children because of his "genetic flaw". He adopts instead.

Bjørn Beltø, in Tom Egeland's Norwegian novel Sirkelens Ende pre-dates but is very similar to The Da Vinci Code. Coincidentally it features an albinistic person in a positive role while the latter does the opposite.

Billy Raven of the Children of the Red King series is an albino orphan seeking adoption. He also fulfills the "magical powers" aspect of this trope (he can talk to animals), but then, so can all the other main characters. Billy also has a Disability Immunity: a villain named Manfred can't use his Hypnotic Eyes on Billy, who has poor eyesight related to his albinism. The author doesn't spell it out, but many albinos suffer rhythmatic nystagmus, where the eyes uncontrollably jerk back and forth from side to side, to the point where it is actually impossible to make traditional "eye contact." Billy also provides a bit of a Deconstruction of the Evil Albino archetype in the early books, where the villain manipulates him by promising to help him find an adoptive family. (It is implied that his albinism is part of the reason no one has ever adopted him.) Nevertheless he was always sympathetic and genuinely liked the heroes. (Incidentally, he winds up getting adopted after his final Heel–Face Turn.)

It's also revealed that Billy's ancestors Amadis, as well as his son Owain, are both heroic albinos much like Billy is, as well as having the same magical powers as him.

Maple White, explorer and original discoverer of the plateau in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World (1912) is described by Professor Challenger as having some characteristics of albinism.

In Sophie and the Albino Camel and other books by British children's author Stephen Davies, the hero is an albino camel called Chobbal. The animal experiences rejection by his own mother so is fed and nurtured by a young African boy. The albino camel has a cheerful and generous disposition.

Peter West, the protagonist and narrator of the novel Simple Man, is depicted as having realistic eye problems. The character is the great-grandson of a fictional early 20th century albinistic circus performer, Angelica Georgiou. It is implied in the narrative that Angelica was very beautiful, intelligent, talented and charming in her prime.

Older Than Print: In The Shahnameh by the great Persian poet Ferdowsi, Prince Zal is born an albino and as such, abandoned to the wilds by his father, but is taken in and raised by the wise and kind Simurgh, a magical dog-bird hybrid. He goes on to not only be a hero but the father of a hero.

The eponymous character in The Albino Knife, part of Steve Perry's Matador Series.

The main character in the YA novel The Likes of Me, which is about a girl in early 20th century Oregon who happens to be both half-Chinese and an albino. She runs away from home and, among other adventures, joins the circus.

One story-book version of Robin Hood describes Maid Marian as an albino. She hides in Sherwood Forest with a group of outcasts because the people believed she was a witch because of her appearance, but she is firmly in the good guy's camp. Her son with Robin has white hair, as well, and the framing device for the story is a boy having a dream who also has white hair—it's implied he's their descendant.

In a Dragonlance short story, there is an albino silver dragon. A knight thinks it is a white dragon and slays the creature.(The fact that white dragons have a cold/ice breath and silver dragons have a paralyzing breath aids the confusion. The knight realizes too late that when he couldn't move, he didn't actually feel cold.) After realizing he just slaughtered a being of pure good, the knight decides to care for the dragon's baby. Perhaps not actually a hero, but it is an albino creature that is completely good, killed because of the way she looks.

It could have been more confusing still, as silver dragons have a cold breath weapon as well.

The kid named "Dark" from The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness's sixth book, Ghost Hunter. He was rejected by his clan and now lives in the mountains with his albino raven, "Ark". They both turn out to be a great help against the Big Bad.

Ghost is an albino direwolf raised by the noble bastard Jon Snow. The story draws comparisons between Jon Snow's bastardy and Ghost's albinism: both conditions distanced them from their families and forced them to mature quicker.

"Bloodraven" was a Hand of the King, spymaster and Lord Commander of the Night's Watch during his lifetime, but was considered an Evil Albino for slaying his rebellious siblings and for suspected magical powers. It turns out that he's been living as a Greenseer for decades among the children of the forest and is apparently more benevolent than his reputation held.

In Dragon's Egg, there is an albino named "Pink Eyes". He is especially notable because he belongs to a species of aliens about the size of a grain of rice, who all live on the surface of a neutron star, where even the laws of physics play out differently. Playing straight into the trope, he is a sickly outcast who eventually wins favor as a prophet. The scientific justification is that his eyes are sensitive to different wavelengths of light, so he can see some of the activities of the orbiting human research station.

Urthwyte the Mighty, of the Redwall novel Salamandastron. Urthwyte was portrayed as a kind and gentle badger with a special talent for forging armor.

Anne McCaffrey's series the Dragonriders of Pern includes a nonhuman albino, the unique white dragon Ruth. Ruth is also smaller than most of his species, and his eggshell was too thick for him to successfully hatch on his own.

Several of the characters in the Fablehaven series, most notably Warren Burgess, lost their pigmentation (along with most of their brain functioning) after encounters with a revenant. Their minds were restored after the revenant's defeat, and their albinism was soon cured by a magic artifact.

There's Dancy Flammarion of Caitlin R. Kiernan's Alabaster, a heroic teenage monster hunter, described by the author as being a "creepy little 'Boo Radley' albino girl."

Threshold makes her...much creepier, and introduces the idea that much of what she might just be a passing individual who Chase Mathews absorbed into a psychotic episode following the death of her grandparents. Because the alternative is that Dancy fought, and was eaten by, Great Cthulhu, and then subsequently spat back out again as either herself or a doped up Changeling so Chance wouldn't remember blowing away a few dozen ghouls.

The Fool from Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy is one of these, a court jester with white skin and hair and colourless eyes, even if it's later revealed he's not 100% human.

In the Tunnels series, protagonists Will Burrows and Cal Jerome are both albino. In general, the civilization Beneath the Earth called the Colony highly values albinism, as it indicates direct descent from the albino Founders.

In The School Mouse by Dick King-Smith, the mouse protagonist crosses paths with an albino mouse. Initially she is terrified by him, believing him to be the ghost of her dead friend, but he actually turns out to be quite nice.

Blagden, the white raven from the Inheritance Cycle, turned white BECAUSE of something heroic he did—saving an elf's life in battle. Said elf gave him the ability to talk and think, which turned his feathers white as a side effect. note Another side effect was the ability to tell the future. In-series, though, he doesn't do much except speak in riddles and yell "Wyrda."

In Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn, the protagonist finds refuge from her abusive, criminal and eventually murderous uncle with the local vicar, who is explicitly an albino. He gives her valuable care and advice. He turns out to be the The Chessmaster behind the crime network, to whom the uncle is The Dragon, so it is all a setup for Evil Albino.

Although, at this point in the story all he's really done is go Ax-Crazy on some shooters after they killed his friends. But we're still counting him.

In the Jacob's Ladder Trilogy, Tristen Conn is albino. This is implied to be the result of inbreeding, as the Conn family tree includes quite a bit of incest and he was born before the advancement of medical technology allowed them to eliminate the risk of genetic defects.

The Riddle Master Trilogy: Astrin Ymris, a secondary character, is the land-heir of Ymris and helps the main character when he loses his memory in the first book.

The Witcher: Geralt of Rivia, the main character, is albino due to undergoing more intense mutations that caused total loss of pigmentation. In terms of personality, he fits the Knight in Sour Armor archetype to a tee, being jaded and world-weary, but still trying to do the right thing in a Crapsack World.

Live-Action TV

The Shadow Architect (leader of the Shadow Proclamation) on Doctor Who is an albino woman, and although the Shadow Proclamation occasionally gets in the Doctor's way, they are clearly established as a Lawful Good force. Another albino woman works for the Shadow Proclamation and looks significantly similar to the Shadow Architect, suggesting that they may be Human Aliens with albinism as a species-wide trait.

Music

"Snow", an albinistic psychic who achieves a messianic following, has his story told in Snow, a concept album by progressive rock band Spock's Beard.

Vocaloid fans often interpret Ia this way; her hair is cream colored and her skin is even lighter, her eyes are light blue, and her biggest song, Imagination Forest, has an alternate version of her with red eyes and powers living alone, afraid to make friends but genuinely good hearted. Her fandom portrayals vary from a quiet daydreamer girl to a highly intelligent but shy young woman who wants to break out of her shell. This is in sharp contrast to Sukone Tei and Mayu, who fans also consider albino but who have negative portrayals in the fandom. (Keep in mind there is no canon for Vocaloids.)

Mythology

In the Kuna tribe of Panema, albinos are revered as children of the moon. During lunar eclipses they fire arrows at the moon to defend it from a moon-eating dragon.

Noah has been interpreted as an albino from his description in the Book of Enoch (from the Dead Sea Scrolls), where he's born with white skin and hair and considered unusual by his parents.

Zal, a warrior from Persian mythology.

Professional Wrestling

Although he began as a heel, Undertaker during his early WWF days could count as this, given his popularity with the fans.

Tabletop Games

Foresight from the Allies supplement for Champions is a heroic Hmong albino woman.

Many of the protagonists of the Castlevania series, most prominently Alucard.

Celestial-blooded characters in Neverwinter Nights games and fan modules almost always show up with white or silver hair, very pale skin, and golden eyes.

Setzer, of Final Fantasy VI, is albino, even though most of his game sprites just give him light Caucasian skin. If you've seen his original character designs◊, though, it's definitely white. For Kingdom Hearts, they redesigned his character and made him a non-albino, though.

The Echani as a species in Knights of the Old Republic all have pale skin, silver-white hair, and silver eyes. They're members in good standing of the Republic, and are generally extremely loyal, though their alignment depends on whomever they're currently loyal to.

Deus Ex's J.C. Denton can be an albino, but his appearance is semi-customizable anyway.

Kevin Smith, the silent, knife wielding assassin with the power to become invisible at will. One of the seven Smith personalities you control in Suda 51's Killer7.

Haseo from the video games Dot Hack GU has white hair and red eyes and is the hero.

While not stated as an albino outright, Loue definitely applies to the trope, as he's a vampire.

Dr Strangelove in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is albino, but all this gives her is the high sensitivity to sunlight that led to her playing outside at night when she was a child, leading to her fascination with space.

The Ralts line from Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, despite having green hair, actually all have pale, white skin, and large red eyes (Ralts' are less obvious because its eyes are constantly covered by its hair).

The Necromancer in Diablo II is at first glance one of those magical albinos, but TPTB suggest that he gained his pale skin and bleached hair from years of studying in tombs, crypts, and other dark and sickly places. Or maybe getting scared silly is an occupational hazard.

You can also be one should you so choose : just create a Courier with light grey hair, blue eyes, pale skin... and a low Perception.

In Fallout 2, Goris was a intelligent, kind but strong companion who wore loose-fitting, but all-encompassing robes to protect himself from the sun. He's also a deathclaw, so it's likely that wasn't the only reason for the robes.

In the original Fable, choosing the good path for your character results in a very white, glowing hero.

Chipp Zanuff from Guilty Gear. Though he started out as a drug addict and common criminal, he learned the ways of justice from his ninja master and by the time of the latest game is a certified good guy. As a bonus, he is the second non-Asian character in the series to be able to use ki magic.

Sylvi from Telltale's Game of Thrones is a good guy as far as wildlings go, and is very protective of her brother, Cotter. Her village saw her white hair as a bad omen, and her mother left her in the forest to die as a baby, but her brother recovered her and left his village with her and they seem to have been looking out for each other ever since.

In Grisaia no RakuenKazuki takes up a leadership position within the group, without which their efforts would have been doomed. Kazuki contrasts the clone of Yuuji in that while they have the same condition, she does her best even if she seems amoral at times. In the epilogue she doesn't do too well on the tropical island thanks to her weakness to sun, though mostly just enough to make her uncomfortable.

Web Animation

Cielle from Broken Saints, while somewhat unsettling at first, is very definitely a positive character.

Homestuck's Derse-dreamer protagonist family contains some very odd eye colors—red (Dave), lavender (Rose), pink (Roxy), and amber (Dirk). Combined with the fact they're all drawn with white hair note although it's worth noting that all humans in Homestuck are portrayed with either black or white hair, this leads to a very common fan interpretation of albinism (especially with Dave and Roxy). This has been endorsed by the creator as at least a reasonable deduction from the facts, if not exclusive canon.

Eugene Clockman from Cometh The Hour. Although, it can also be subverted considering his spilt personality disorder.

Eniko Maragos from Holystone. She's odd and impulsive, but also a warm-hearted ruler and mother.

Mori of The Dragon Doctors was attacked by a strange metafictional demon that kills you by devouring the story of your life. This took the form of it asking her questions about her past and erasing her memory of the answer; when it got to "what ethnicity are you?" she couldn't answer and all the color was drained from her body, leaving her the color of paper. It seems to be permanent, too.

Giant, AKA Prince Varka, from Wizard & Giant. He's got a temper, loves violence, and is an apathetic anarchist like his husband Wizard, but he genuinely cares about the people around him. Like everyone from the sunless land of Asura, he has white hair, pink eyes and very pale skin.

Pete White in The Venture Bros.. An albinistic computer scientist and friend of Dr. Venture from his college years, Pete runs "Conjectural Technologies" with Master Billy Quizboy, Boy Genius (who is not actually a "boy" but rather a short hydrocephalic man). It should be noted that Pete is a bit of an asshole, and an ex-cokehead. Still, he can be considered heroic by the standards of the show. Doc Hammer, one of the co-creators of the show, who leant his own look to the character, actually has a variant on albinism.

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